Hi Guys! Last year I created a "How was the performance of your business in the first half of 2024" post and there was lots of great discussion. I am going to try to make this a regular thing. I'd like feedback if we'd like to change this to quarterly or if anyone would like to see other things included in this.
1st Half of 2024 Post
1H'24 post had quite a bit of negative sentiment and poor performance. A link to that discussion is above. I am sure like us, most people have not closed their December or Q4 financial statements but we directionally know where we are going to land. Even if you are unsure or don't have access to where financials for the business you work in are going to land, your input about goals and targets are helpful to hear about!
We are an equipment company in Central Texas with sub $10mm in revenue. We are a small business. While we struggled to hit our 1H'24 targets, we had more up months than down months in the second half that resurrected our year. Overall, 2024 was up a few percentage points from a revenue standpoint YoY. We had no price increases and in fact pricing was a headwind to our overall performance as we shifted our revenue profile from being dependent on residential construction to commercial construction. This is overall a major positive for us, although pricing gets significantly more competitive for those jobs.
Compared to the negative sentiment I had going into H2'24, I was somewhat pleasantly surprised by the results.
From an expense standpoint, I find that it is easier to motivate employees and managers to be cost conscious in an overall economy that is feeling pressure. They treat spending at work the same way they treat the way they spend money at home. I think most can agree that times are tougher than they have been in recent past for individuals. Because of that, I think we are actually going to wind up with a nice boost to our earnings YoY. Our company is finally rowing in the same direction from an expense standpoint. This is helped greatly by decent performing months of November and December that were pretty abysmal in 2023.
Looking forward, I am just grateful to operate in the Central Texas economy. There are not many economies in the US that are as dynamic and positive right now. That doesn't mean I am not anxious. The election is probably going to provide a bit of a tailwind going forward for us but everyone has their eyes glued to the fed and the 10yr. From a competition standpoint, it is getting fierce as we all compete for fewer jobs as there were before. From contractors we are hearing things like "We have the work, but owners keep pushing the start date off to the right" which is a better alternative than hearing that they have no work. We still do not see an uptick in our residential construction side but commercial is chugging along.
My sentiment for the year is cautiously optimistic. We plan on deploying capex purchases to lean into pockets of success that our business development group and managers are identifying. We have a fairly aggressive growth plan for the year. Stay tuned!
What is everyone else seeing??
1st Half of 2024 Post
1H'24 post had quite a bit of negative sentiment and poor performance. A link to that discussion is above. I am sure like us, most people have not closed their December or Q4 financial statements but we directionally know where we are going to land. Even if you are unsure or don't have access to where financials for the business you work in are going to land, your input about goals and targets are helpful to hear about!
We are an equipment company in Central Texas with sub $10mm in revenue. We are a small business. While we struggled to hit our 1H'24 targets, we had more up months than down months in the second half that resurrected our year. Overall, 2024 was up a few percentage points from a revenue standpoint YoY. We had no price increases and in fact pricing was a headwind to our overall performance as we shifted our revenue profile from being dependent on residential construction to commercial construction. This is overall a major positive for us, although pricing gets significantly more competitive for those jobs.
Compared to the negative sentiment I had going into H2'24, I was somewhat pleasantly surprised by the results.
From an expense standpoint, I find that it is easier to motivate employees and managers to be cost conscious in an overall economy that is feeling pressure. They treat spending at work the same way they treat the way they spend money at home. I think most can agree that times are tougher than they have been in recent past for individuals. Because of that, I think we are actually going to wind up with a nice boost to our earnings YoY. Our company is finally rowing in the same direction from an expense standpoint. This is helped greatly by decent performing months of November and December that were pretty abysmal in 2023.
Looking forward, I am just grateful to operate in the Central Texas economy. There are not many economies in the US that are as dynamic and positive right now. That doesn't mean I am not anxious. The election is probably going to provide a bit of a tailwind going forward for us but everyone has their eyes glued to the fed and the 10yr. From a competition standpoint, it is getting fierce as we all compete for fewer jobs as there were before. From contractors we are hearing things like "We have the work, but owners keep pushing the start date off to the right" which is a better alternative than hearing that they have no work. We still do not see an uptick in our residential construction side but commercial is chugging along.
My sentiment for the year is cautiously optimistic. We plan on deploying capex purchases to lean into pockets of success that our business development group and managers are identifying. We have a fairly aggressive growth plan for the year. Stay tuned!
What is everyone else seeing??